What is the International Commission for the History of Towns?

The objectives of the International Commission for Urban History, i.e. promoting research on urban history and creating a research network while specialising in comparative approaches, are so consistent with those of the IStG that we have numerous shared interests and points of convergence. The Commission is one of several organisations that emerged from the International Committee of Historical Sciences (CISH) and has been affiliated to it since its foundation in 1955. It is an association of academics who have made significant contributions to the field of historical urban studies. The group comprises up to 70 national delegates from the co-opted European countries, as well as intercontinental members and honorary members.

For most members, the IStG serves as a kind of intellectual hub for the Commission’s work. Many of them make use of the institute library and other resources during extended research stays to carry out their own work, they send young researchers to Münster, or meet up in the margins of the IStG’s spring conferences.

With its ongoing and completed towns atlas series, the IStG is one of the key contributors to the Commission’s most significant initiative and joint project: the European Historic Towns Atlas. The IStG’s bibliographical and source-editing work is equally in line with the Commission’s programme at a European level.